2020 How Should We Then Live?

Our unveiled faces reflect more to our culture than we realize.

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18

Even the unrighteous see His image in creation, yet they suppress the truth. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”  Roman 1:18-20

As Francis Schaeffer quipped, “So How Should We Then Live”?

We are to live coram Deo, before the face of the Triune God of the Bible, Maker of heaven and earth. No glare or fierce gaze over a veiled face strikes as much fear in man as the penetrating gaze of the Most Holy God.  He alone is to be feared. 

“To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.

To live in the presence of God is to understand that whatever we are doing and wherever we are doing it, we are acting under the gaze of God. God is omnipresent. There is no place so remote that we can escape His penetrating gaze.“
-R C Sproul

If you find that you are walking in fear of pleasing men, or contracting an illness, or not going along with the culture of the world or even the current Christian church culture, repent.  Turn to Jesus, “and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.“

 

What I’m Learning in 2020

The lesser magistrate doctrine declares that when the  superior or higher civil authority makes unjust/immoral laws or decrees, the lesser or lower ranking civil authority has both a right and duty to refuse obedience to that authority. If necessary, the lesser authorities even have the right and obligation to actively resist the superior authority.

When God removes corporate worship and the Lord’s Supper from His people it is judgment.

Toby Sumpter said;
Joel teaches us that when God’s people turn away from Him, the central thing they have turned away from is worship of him. And so He removes His blessings from their midst, and the central sign of that judgment is the removal of public worship from their midst. If we were ever in any doubt about whether we are under the judgment of God, let there be no mistake: we are under the judgment of God because we are not worshipping God together this morning. He has taken away the grain offering and drink offering from the house of God. of that judgment is the removal of public worship from their midst.

Judgment begins with the household of God.

Repent daily for my sins and the sins of this nation.

Read my Bible daily.

Give thanks in all things even in the midst of petty tyrants.

Pray without ceasing.

Fear God.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Kiss the Son lest He be angry.

The Son has risen whether men believe it or not.

 

 

 

Our New Ordinary. . .

Six months ago, we sold our beautiful family country home and moved to the town where Randy works.  Moving from a home that my dad built and the land that was given to us by Randy’s dad turned out to be one of the hardest things we’ve done since we married thirty-three years ago.  We wanted to move.  We needed to move. We are glad that we moved.  But it was difficult decision to make and an even harder thing to actually do!  Today we can’t imagine still living almost forty miles from our daughter and son-in-law, Randy’s work, and our church family.  We especially can’t imagine making a move like this when we were any older.  Seriously.  Words cannot describe the ups and downs of selling our family home and land and the physical, mental, and emotional drain of moving twenty years of life in a matter of three days.  I honestly do not know how we did it except for the grace of God, a husband with very broad shoulders, and the love of the saints.

The home we purchased was won by prayer and pursued with all diligence by a faithful, servant-hearted sister in Christ, dear friend, and most experienced and professional realtor.  Without her love, sacrifice, and help, we would not have been able to buy our home.  The home we purchased was the first home we looked at and the only home  we looked at that felt like “home”.  After nearly eight months of waiting upon the Lord and praying and our agent pursuing and forging a trust relationship with the “For Sale By Owner” of the home, the owner finally agreed to take our offer.  God works all things for His glory and our sanctification!

We’ve been working hard on our little fixer-upper and it has taken more blood, sweat, and tears that we imagined.  The Lord has provided all the way from chimney rebuilders, to roofers, to concrete raisers, to my favorite most hard-working handyman /aka/my husband.   We still have much more to do,  but can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel on the big stuff!  Thanks be to God!

Great Parenting Lesson

A man’s children and his garden both reflect the amount of weeding done during the growing season.

G K Chesterton On the Art of Stewardship

Thrift is the really romantic thing; economy is more romantic than extravagance…thrift is poetic because it is creative; waste is unpoetic because it is waste…If a man could undertake to make use of all the things in his dustbin, he would be a broader genius than Shakespeare.

“If we begin with all authority, we end with all nations. If we begin with an invisible and very spiritual authority, then we end with small collections, in every nation, of believers in this invisible and very spiritual authority. But Jesus did not want a small collection of struggling churches in Pakistan; He wants Pakistan itself. He is happy to begin with the small beachhead in an unbelieving nation, but that beachhead must not confuse itself  with the coming occupation” (Heaven Misplaced, p. 82).

When the Son of Man comes in the clouds of heaven, He is presented to the Ancient of Days. Authority was then given to Him — described as dominion, glory, and a kingdom. And lest we interpret this as dominion, glory and a kingdom in some invisible spiritual place, the prophecy goes on to tell us what the result of that establishment would be. The result was that all people, nations and languages would serve Him. When Jesus said that all authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him, this is what He was talking about” (Heaven Misplaced, p. 83).

The Lord’s promises to us are truly staggering, and it is not surprising that we cannot get our minds completely around it. But He delights to give to His people, and one of the greatest gifts that He has given to us is the future . . . What is the future of this world, prior to the Lord’s coming, going to be like? We can’t say, because nothing that good has ever entered into the heart of man. We are slow to believe all that is promised, but the glorious fruition is headed our way nonetheless” (Heaven Misplaced, p. 17).

I asked earlier what the characteristics of His rule would be. The passage from Isaiah 11 should take your breath away. The earth will be as full of the knowledge of God as the Pacific Ocean is wet” (Heaven Misplaced, p. 16)

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea!

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

“At the very heart of the gospel is sacrifice, and there is perhaps no occupation in the world so intrinsically sacrificial as motherhood. Motherhood is a wonderful opportunity to live the gospel. Jim Elliot famously said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Motherhood provides you with an opportunity to lay down the things that you cannot keep on behalf of the people that you cannot lose. They are eternal souls, they are your children, they are your mission field.” ~Rachel Jankovic

 

“Live the gospel in the things that no one sees. Sacrifice for your children in places that only they will know about. Put their value ahead of yours. Grow them up in the clean air of gospel living. Your testimony to the gospel in the little details of your life is more valuable to them than you can imagine. If you tell them the gospel, but live to yourself, they will never believe it. Give your life for theirs every day, joyfully. Lay down pettiness. Lay down fussiness. Lay down resentment about the dishes, about the laundry, about how no one knows how hard you work.” ~Rachel Jankovic

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!  Thank you for living the gospel when you thought no one was watching.

 

Humble and Fearless

Can’t Wait For Wes King’s New Album

Love his music, his beautiful wife and family, and the way they live the gospel.